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And so we come to you in the hope that you can perhaps give us some slight bit of information something that seems insignificant, perhaps, to you, but which may put us on the right track." It was a careful speech. Even as Hartnett spoke it, I could have sworn that the words were Drake's, and had been memorized. But Michael Strange merely stepped back to the table and faced us without a word.
He was murdered, according to substantial evidence, by the girl he was going to marry Margot Vernee. I come to you because you know this girl rather well, and can perhaps help Scotland Yard in finding her motive for killing White." Michael Strange said nothing. He stood there, scowling down at my companion in silence. And I, too, I must admit, turned upon Hartnett with a stare of bewilderment.
"You see now, Dale," Drake said quietly, "why I let Hartnett go with you before? If Strange had suspected me, I should have been merely another victim. As for Hartnett, he has been under constant guard down at headquarters. He's safe. They've kept him there, at my instructions, in spite of all his terrific efforts to leave them." I was listening to my companion in admiration.
"I thought it best that I should not show myself here to-night. No, there is no time for explanation now; you will understand later. Perhaps" significantly "sooner than you anticipate. Inspector Hartnett will go through the rest of this pantomime with you." I shook hands with Drake's man, still rather bewildered at the sudden substitution.
The heavy steps echoed to our footbeats as we mounted them in the darkness; and the sound of the bell, as Hartnett pressed it came sharply to us from the silence of the interior. We stood there, waiting. Let me do the talking, please." That was all. In another moment the big door was pulled slowly open from the inside, and in the entrance, glaring out at us, stood the man we had come to see.
Because she loved him!" The last words were heavy with bitterness. Before they had died into silence, Michael Strange had opened the door of his study. "If you please, gentlemen," he said quietly. Hartnett got to his feet. For an instant he stood facing the gorilla-like form of our host; then he stepped over the sill, without a word.
Here he motioned us to be seated, he himself standing upright beside the table, facing us. "From Scotland Yard," he said, and the tone was heavy with dull sarcasm. "I am at your service, Mr. Hartnett." And now, for the first time, I wondered just why Drake had insisted on my coming here to this gloomy house in Mate Lane.
Mother she asked me how they got afire and i said i was fooling with them and they got on fire and i had to plug them out of the window. then she said that was what fritened Miss Hartnett so and i said was she fritened and she said she was so fritened that she fell over backwards and i said is that so. mother dont know i did it on purpose whitch is prety good luck for me, so she only made me keep my snapcrackers in the yard. so i put them in a hole in the apple tree. gosh, you aught to hear Miss Hartnett tell about it.
His accusation of Margot had brought a sense of horror to me. I had expected almost anything from him, even to a mad accusation of Strange himself. But I had hardly foreseen this cold blooded declaration. "You understand, Doctor," Hartnett went on, in that same ironical drawl, "that we do not believe Margot Vernee did this thing herself.
She had a companion, undoubtedly, one who accompanied her to the house on After Street, and assisted her in the crime. Who that companion was, we are not sure; but there is decidedly a case of suspicion against a certain young London sportsman. This fellow is known to have prowled about the White mansion both on the night of the murder and the night before." Hartnett glanced up casually.
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